Darkness...that's all the came to Sesshomaru's golden orbs as he tried to open his lids once more but to no avail. Trying to take in a breath of frustration, he growled when he felt weight on his ribs. Usually it wouldn't have bothered him, the object didn't feel heavy at all, but due to his bruises and broken rib it hurt like crazy.

Trying to ignore the constant stinging Sesshomaru tried to think of something else, anything else, as his mind started to come to and his lids began to open. Blinking twice at the brightness of the room now surrounding him he tried to sit up and inspect it, but his body was weighed down by whatever was put on him. Looking down he nearly growled in surprise to see a woman lying against his chest. Her arms grasped his shoulders when he moved to keep from falling. Taking them lightly he lifted the woman off him gently and placed her body on the empty side of the bed.

Not even bothering to argue why the woman was lying on him in the first place, Sesshomaru started to sit up but thought better of it when his ribs throbbed even harder. Growling at himself as he laid back down, Sesshomaru could hardly believe how weak he felt, how vulnerable. Even a pesky human could kill him with ease, and the thought had him disgusted with his situation. He had to get his powers back at all costs. He never wanted to feel like a human again. Thinking it over, he realized that he had to be weaker then his younger brother now.

Just what I need, to lose my strength and with my luck Inuyasha will waltz right in here and see me helpless like a human, Sesshomaru thought angrily. He brought his right arm slowly to his head to massage his temples and ease the migraine that was beginning. After a few moments his eyes shot open as he turned quickly to the woman still lying on the bedside. "Flowers, that's what I remember from the darkness..." he whispered, studying the woman there, and her long brown slightly wavy locks. Her eyes were closed but he was sure that she had dark pools hiding within them.

"Rin..." he whispered the lost name on his lips, a spark went off in his head as if it were familiar as his eyes softened to a much higher degree then normal due to his close to human state. His hands itched with the urge to slide his claws through her hair, the feeling was so strange to him. "How could I have met you?" he could barely talk as he tried yet again to sit up, this time getting a little further up than last time, but still ended up falling back in pain.

He looked up to the ceiling remembering only small images from the ride to this place. The first was when he had fallen onto the street hard and was thrown back into consciousness. Soft hands had rubbed along his face, merely checking for wounds. But due to his weakened state, his demonic urges overtook him and he had gone to bite whoever had been touching him. He was starved and the smell of flesh was a huge temptation, but luckily he had returned the powers deep inside before he did any serious damage. He had smelled flowers and the scent had been familiar enough to convince his demonic urges to cease attacking. Upon closer inspection he had realized then that whoever had been touching him was female.

Another fleeting image was when his claws had dug into her flesh on her arm. She had touched him gently again, but he had been in pain from being banged around in some kind of strange bed. His anger had boiled over and he couldn't control it when he had glared at her with his demonic attributes out in the open for her eyes to see. He had known it was the same person because she still had the faint scent of flowers that the first female had. Angry with himself that he was having feelings of guilt for a woman he hardly knew he dragged his lips down with a sneer.

"Finally you have awakened," a voice whispered behind Sesshomaru as his back tensed and he whirled around his fangs poking out from under his lips, his sneer still visible. His golden orbs met with dark brown as he growled deep in his throat.

Standing there was the head priest from the gang of thrown out worshipers. He was in dark green robes and looked completely relaxed even as Sesshomaru's irises began to glow red.

"No need to be so excited for my arrival, oh great demon lord. I am merely here to tell you what you are to do to gain your powers back. You left so quickly I wasn't able to tell you. I believe this should be a fair game, hmm? Luckily I have the name here of the woman you are to bring to us, her name is Rin Satoshka (don't know her real last name). But there is a twist my dear friend, we need her to come to us willingly, so you cannot just find her and drag her along back. Your mission is, Sesshomaru, to find this woman and make her trust you. Falling in love with you is much better, but I'm not expecting that much from the likes of you. You have the dead-line of two months, no later then that or your powers are ours to keep," the priest explained. His body, Sesshomaru noted, was levitating in the air just a few inches from the ground. It must be a hologram of some kind Sesshomaru thought as he glared at the form before lashing out at it, his claws aiming for his head.

Just as he suspected, the man's picture fuzzed out a bit before returning to normal without a single scratch. But Sesshomaru's form stayed frozen in the air as well as the hologram as the demon tried to wretch his body free. With no success, the priest merely chuckled at Sesshomaru's petty tries to break free. "Now, now Sesshomaru, you don't have to get ao hasty, but don't ignore what I said. One of my henchmen saved your life by telling me to recite the mission to you. If it were my decision I would've let you figure it out on your own. But for now, your loyal servant my lord," the priest stated smirking and taking a small bow before disintegrating into a heap of green ash on the floor. And along with the ash Sesshomaru was let go from his levitation cage as he crashed hard onto the floor. He fell onto his right side, causing his broken rib cage to crack even more. He gave out a helpless groan and his eyes stung.

Closing his eyes away from the pain, he willed it to disappear from his mind. But unlike his demon body, this human one had no power to get rid of pain. Rolling over on his back Sesshomaru clutched his right side with one hand and winced as the rib throbbed and he bit his tongue to hold in another groan. Sitting in silence for about two seconds Sesshomaru jumped when he heard the sound of another body hitting the floor and a squeal of surprise after.

Turning his head to the left he saw that the woman had fallen down onto the floor from the bed. Her back was to him as she started getting up. It took her a few seconds, but with her two hands supporting her weight she was able to sit up. She rubbed the small of her back and her thighs before getting up on her feet. Since there wasn't really a comfortable way of getting up and seeing her face, Sesshomaru stared down at her feet seeing a small pair of tennis shoes. Its laces were loosely tied and the white soles were dark grey along with blotches of dirt all around the shoes. Hmm, it seems my savior isn't very wealthy or at least well kept Sesshomaru sighed to himself as he turned his head back up to look at the ceiling. He waited patiently for the woman to notice him lying on the floor.

And as he predicted, a few moments of confused looks around the room later, the woman turned around the bed to see him lying there and she gaped. Rolling over on the bed she stepped over his body, making sure not to step on any part of him. She kneeled down to his level and looked into his eyes with her own worried ones. His eyebrows slightly furrowed as he marveled at how correct he seemed to be today, indeed as he had thought, her eyes were the darkest pools of brown he had ever seen. "Sir...? Sir, are you alright? Did you fall?" she asked her voice in a confused tone but also gentle.

"Indeed. I must have, I really don't enjoy lying on the ground," he answered as she made an O with her lips before sliding her hands under his back, intending to help push him up right. But just as her hands met at his sides he winced and growled slightly before rolling away from her and holding his side again. "Oh your ribs...hold on let me get some doctors to help me get you back up on the bed," she stated as she gently placed her hands on either side of his body.

Again her actions were gentle as he somewhat glared, or at least tried to, since he was still wincing from the pain in his ribs. Then he stated, "I am not that injured. I won't break," the woman blushed a little but let her right hand move up and caress his cheek lightly.

"That's true. You look almost one hundred percent, but you're in no condition to be thrown around," she answered as she removed her hand and got up before leaving the room. Sesshomaru turned his head away from the door as he felt a small feeling of loneliness overcome him at the woman's departure. The woman was only going to be gone for a few moments and he already missed her presence. He didn't know why, but something about the woman reminded him of someone, but he couldn't figure out who.

Sighing lightly so not to damage his ribs more, he closed his eyes and willed himself to fall alseep, letting the world's questions be answered when he had a cleared head.

(Divider)

Rin moved quickly along the hospital hallways starting to panic as she found herself lost in all its familiar halls. "How am I going to get help for Sesshomaru when I keep getting lost like this?" she asked herself as she walked faster down the current hall before hearing footsteps behind her. She whirled around and bumped into a white covered chest as she was pushed back a little and winced when she heard a grunt of pain.

Looking up her mouth fell open as she saw Sesshomaru standing there rubbing his chest slightly wincing again when his hand moved to his right side. "What are you doing out of your room?" she asked as she turned him gently around and scooted him forward as the man put both his feet down stopping her. "What are you doing?" he asked coolly turning his head sideways studying her as she looked up at him before answering, "Well for starters, you have a broken rib and you're bruised everywhere. Second, you need medical attention and third, there is no way you can be walking so soon after your injuries. You need rest," she explained while still trying to push the outrageously tall man towards his room.

"I hardly need that, I assure you. If you please, I would like to get out of here. I have some...things to take care of," he replied turning around to glance down at her, but that only caused her to fall forward at the change of events. Her hands fell forward first and landed on his chest, mainly his right side as he grunted and flinched before taking her hands off him and pushing her slightly away with ease. Gasping with surprise and guilt for causing him more pain she looked up into his eyes and held his gaze. "I'm sorry—I didn't mean to hurt you I merely was try-" the man put up his right hand signaling for her to stop as he turned his eyes slightly away breaking their gaze. "It's fine. Just let me go," he suggested as Rin started to nod when the conversation was broken by one of the nurses walking down the hallway.

"Oh you're alright back there Sir? I see you're walking now. If you are healed you can leave," she stated as Rin took this as her chance. She moved somewhat shyly in front of Sesshomaru. "Wait nurse! He is not healed entirely, he thinks he's invincible, but see-" she stopped mid sentence as she poked his right side and he groaned and held his right side bending down. "Oh my dear!" the nurse exclaimed rather dramatically as she rushed over to Sesshomaru's side and took his left arm. "You need to still rest Sir. Please come with me," she stated looking slightly worried as Sesshomaru tried to shake her off.

"Let me help you with him," Rin stated as the nurse nodded happily at her. The two women took a hold of the taller man and dragged/pulled him back to his room before the nurse paged for the doctor to come and check on his patient. The doctor from before showed up a few moments later holding a notepad in his right hand and a small black pen in the other. "Why, you have awakened! That's very surprising, I should say. But good news for me, must mean that your body is healing well," He stated mostly to himself scribbling down small notes before walking over to Sesshomaru and inspecting his arms before pulling up the right sleeve. Rin nearly toppled over in disgust as she took in all his cuts and bruises going up just that one arm. "Ouch, whatever happened to you it wasn't pleasant that's for sure," the doctor observed his eyes cleanly focused on one cut along his forearm, deep enough to risk a scar.

"If you don't mind, what happened to you?" the doctor asked looking up at the man as he glared slightly and wretched his arm away and covering it with his sleeve. "I do mind," he merely stated before trying to get off the bed and away from this place, but the doctor pushed him back making sure to push his left side rather then his right.

"Not so fast there my friend. You still have surgery to go through, a broken rib to fix and to look for anything else that could have entered you body. You don't know what's in the air these days, and with all these cuts it's pretty easy to catch anything," The doctor reasoned as Sesshomaru sat quietly slightly agreeing, he didn't need to die so quickly in this human body. "When is the surgery?" the woman asked his own question as he slightly turned to her but then turned away quickly, catching the doctor's gaze above the woman's dark locks. The man cleared his throat as he turned his gaze back to Rin, "Now if the patient is ready. If not, tomorrow then," he answered as both answered at the same time.

"Today,"

"Tomorrow," Rin answered slightly after Sesshomaru as she turned to look up at the man as he glared down at her. "You're in no condition to go into surgery so fast, at least give your body a rest before taking such big steps," she advised as Sesshomaru bent down slightly his nose brushing hers as he whispered. "I have no time to mingle with the human race, nor time to let my "body heal." Now if you please, I would love to get back to my life," And with that he backed up slightly to turn back to the doctor who, not noticing it at all, was scribbling in his notepad again.

"The surgery is today, now," Sesshomaru stated as Rin opened her mouth to object but a small glance of disapproval shut her up as she looked to the floor and the doctor looked up and nodded.

"Alright then Sir, please follow me to the operating room," the doctor smiled leaving Rin alone in the room sighing to herself.

"Oh why always me?"